Ross Castle — the chieftain who drowned rather than be conquered, Killarney

Ross Castle on the shores of Lough Leane in Killarney, County Kerry, is a 15th-century tower house built by the O'Donoghue chieftains. According to legend, the last chieftain, O'Donoghue Mór, threw himself into the lake rather than surrender to English forces, and his spirit is said to sleep in a chamber beneath the waters. Every seven years, on May 1st, O'Donoghue rises from the lake on his white horse and rides across the water, attended by fairy maidens. Those who see him are blessed with good fortune. Beyond this romantic legend, the castle produces more conventional ghost reports. Guests staying in the castle — which once operated as a hotel and is now a heritage site — have reported disembodied voices and doors banging throughout the night. A spectral figure in a cloak has been seen on the castle's battlements, looking out over the lake. The castle's dramatic setting — on a promontory jutting into the lake, with the MacGillycuddy Reeks mountains rising behind — creates one of the most beautiful haunted landscapes in Ireland. The combination of fairy legend, Gaelic aristocratic tradition, and conventional ghost stories makes Ross Castle a quintessentially Irish haunted location.